Morphology

Question 1

What are the basic elements of languages

Answer 1

sounds, known as phonemes = they don’t have meaning

Question 2

Morpheme

Answer 2

the smallest linguistic unit that has a meaning, units of first articulation = they carry meaning

Question 3

why isn’t a morpheme a word?

Answer 3

A word can contain one or several morphemes
e.g. pets = pet + plural
a single morpheme can also be a word, e.g. pet

Question 4

two types of morphemes

Answer 4

• lexical morphemes (lexemes) = a lexical item
• grammatical morphemes = affixes

Question 5

What are the two types of affixes?

Answer 5

• (in)flectional affixes
• lexical/derivational affixes

Question 6

Inflectional affixes

Answer 6

signal grammatical relationships, such as plural, past tense and possession. They do not change the grammatical class or the stems to which they are attached
e.g. teach -> teaches (-s 3rd person), taught (-en)

Question 7

Derivational affixes

Answer 7

allsows one to create a new word
e.g. teacher = creates a different lexical item, which is derived from teach. (two separate entries in the dictionnary)

Question 8

Analyse decentralised

Answer 8

de-centr-al-ise-ed : 5 morphemes

-centr- is called the root
de-, -al, -ise are called affixes

Question 9

prefix

Answer 9

comes before the root

Question 10

suffix

Answer 10

comes after the root

Question 11

infix

Answer 11

comes in the middle of the root

e.g. Absofrickinlutely

Question 12

How many types of inflections?

Answer 12

two : internal or external

Question 13

External inflections

Answer 13

relugar, there aren’t many of them
- nominal inflection -s
- adjectival inflection -er, -est
- verbal inflection -s, -ed, -ing

Question 14

Internal inflections

Answer 14

they are irregular, there are many of them
mouse = mice ; teach = taught

Question 15

allomorphs

Answer 15

What a morpheme becomes in a specific environment
the equivalent of allophones but for morphemes

Question 16

Give three exemples of allomorphs

Answer 16

• a & an are allomorphs of the indefinite article
• The with /ə/ and the with /i:/ are allomorphs of the definite article
• The morpheme that expresses plurality has several allomorphs : Cats /s/ ; dogs /z/ ; houses /ɪz/ ; feet ; mice

Question 17

Free morpheme

Answer 17

a morpheme that can occur by itself
e.g. hunt, dog, green, run…

Question 18

bound morpheme

Answer 18

A morpheme that occurs only attached to another morpheme, affixes are bound morphemes.

Question 19

What are the ways to make a new word from a root?

Answer 19

• affixation
• compounding
• stress shift
• vowel change

Question 20

Compounding

Answer 20

two free morphemes come together to create a new word, called a compound.
e.g. blackbird (different from a black bird, creates a new word)

Question 21

Compounds stress

Answer 21

almost always on the first element
e.g. BLACKbird = that particular species
black BIRD = any bird that happens to be black

Question 22

Quels sont les noms composés (compounds) où l’accent se situe sur le deuxième élément?

Answer 22

• localisation dans l’espace, le temps
  e.g. a London ‘pub, Buckingham ‘palace, the back ‘door, the middle ‘finger…
  exceptions : Street e.g. ‘Oxford Street
• un des termes = matière utilisé à la fabrication
  e.g. a brick ‘wall, a leather ‘jacket, an apple ‘pie
  exceptions : cake, juice, water, milk e.g. ‘coconut milk
• adjectifs composés
  e.g. blue-‘eyed, pitch-‘black, right-‘handed

Question 23

Stress shift

Answer 23

a way to make a verb into a noun by shifting the accent from the second to the first syllable.
e.g. the person who reBELS is a REbel

Question 24

vowel change

Answer 24

A morpheme can consist of a changed vowel, many English verbs form their past tense with a vowel change. e.g. come, came
This has the same function with these verbes as the suffix -ed.

Question 25

Explain the case of wife - wives

Answer 25

wif and wiv or [waif] and [waiv] -> are two allomorphs of the same morphemes
In wives there is two morphemes, not 3.